OVERVIEW Early in the new millennium, San Franciscans will rededicate a legendary and historic pipe organ at the soon-to-be-constructed Music Concourse located on the city's Embarcadero. Behind The Velvet Curtain is the story of this community's efforts to save its historic pipe organ--an instrument with an 85-year role in a human drama of art, politics, loss and, ultimately, rebirth. Originally built for San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition (World's Fair) of 1915, the Exposition Organ was one of the largest and most technologically advanced pipe organs of the time. Encompassing some 7,500 pipes, each between a fraction of an inch and 41 feet in length, it remains one of the last vestiges of that historic event. At the close of the fair, the organ was donated to The City and moved to the new Exposition Auditorium (later renamed the Civic Auditorium). On April 8th, 1917, world renown organist Edwin H. Lemare performed before an audience of over 10,000 at the organ's dedication concert in its new home. The instrument remained in service at the Civic Auditorium until damage caused by the 1989 Loma-Prieta earthquake rendered it inoperable. Behind The Velvet Curtain will recount the personal experiences of those who built, played, cared-for and ultimately rescued this musical treasure from its decade-long isolation beneath San Francisco's Civic Center, dismantled, crated and almost forgotten.